Albion 1986 (Demerara)

I’m no rum expert but I can tell you Demerara is the last remaining distillery in Guyana producing the El Dorado rum. They have three different stills, taken from different old sugar estates and now brought together in the Diamond estate. One of them is a continuous 4-column Savalle-type still (very similar to a Coffey still) called Albion, taken from the Uitvlugt estate.

Velier, the Italian importer of Demerara rum (as well as many whisky brands), regularly bottles single casks or small batches of old rum. This Albion 1986 comes from one single barrel, matured in the tropical weather of Guyana and bottled in February 2011.

Albion 25 yo 1986
(60,6%, OB for Velier import, cask #10546)

Nose: very rich. Very medicinal as well with quite some tar and diesel aromas that remind me of the Caroni 1974. Almost peaty. Lovely peppermint and deep molasses. Cinnamon and liquorice. Mouth: sweet and syrupy but it quickly becomes tarry again, and drier. Liquid liquorice candy as it were. Some oak juices, resin and spices / herbs (pepper, anise, fennel). Cough syrup. A little laurel. Finish: more liquorice candy and plenty of pine resin.

The peculiar phenols / liquorice / resin combination makes this Albion quite extreme. I’m sure it’s excellent as an antitussive. Unique and enjoyable to a certain degree, but it’s so overpowering that I quickly had enough of it (in the same way that I can only take one or two Salmiak candies at a time). Around € 130.